The Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology was created from the former Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology in the 1976/77 session. In 1995, the Biochemistry unit was established and the name of the Department was changed to the Department of Veterinary Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology.

The Department of Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry was then created in March 2017 from the then Department of Veterinary Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology. The Department runs courses in Veterinary Physiology and Biochemistry for D.V.M I (200 Level) and DVM II (300 Level) students; together with the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, this Department also teaches basic Animal Physiology and Anatomy courses to the Second Year Agricultural Science students. Postgraduate degree programmes in Physiology leading to award of M.Sc., M.Phil, and Ph.D degrees started in 1982 while Postgraduate degree programme in Biochemistry leading to award of M.Sc degree started in 2018.

Research programmes in the department cover various aspects of Haematology, Gastroenterology, Adaptation physiology, Phytomedicine, Environmental Toxicology, Reproductive toxicology, Oncology, Biochemistry of Nutrition and Xenobiotics, Neurophysiology and Drug metabolism.